Brewing High Performance in Creemore II!

It’s been several months since builder Graham Fisher finished his near Passive House in Creemore, Ontario and we had the chance to tour it a few times since, most recently to commission his Zehnder HRV. A long-time home energy auditor and now a CPHC Consultant:

Leave it to the Germans to misspell Fisher; Congrats Graham!

Leave it to the Germans to misspell Fisher; Congrats Graham!

For this build, Graham teamed up with architect Steve Sopika of Fieldesign to produce a smart and simply beautiful house. As previously blogged about, the heating load is expected to be well below 10,000BTU and we’re happy to report it made it’s air tightness target handily.

What’s unique about this house is that though Graham is the GC, he’s technically never built a home, but like us, has been on construction sites observing building details for years. This has led to some very interesting innovations and a unique approach to building details of which, Graham will spell out in greater detail this fall when he presents at our coveted High Performance Design meets Boots on the Ground networking event. Here’s a little taste:

 

With the 3M Flashing tape projecting down past the face of the foundation wall, you can see how Graham detailed this outside corner continuing from our last blog post.

With the 3M Flashing tape projecting down past the face of the foundation wall, you can see how Graham detailed this outside corner continuing from our last blog post.

 

With the air barrier up, this is a great time to test the house for air leakage before the window are in to see if the project is on target or not.

With the air barrier up, this is a great time to test the house for air leakage before the windows are in to see if the project is on target or not.

 

The bales of straw give it a real pastoral look... In time for Halloween.

The bales of straw give it a real pastoral look… In time for Halloween.

p1030561-small

As the low hanging sun in February spreads itself across the room’s slab, we were recharging our vitamin D stores.

 

p1030566-small

Simple clean lines, this house was well executed and a pleasure to be in.

p1030568-small

The south facing back wall bathing in sunlight. You can see the shadow projecting from the eaves really optimises the winter solar heat gain. Even the east and west walls have an eaves protecting them from the elements on the gable walls.

 

p1030571-small

Ready for the solar panels with the second meter socket, the two Air Source Heat Pumps were installed on the garage wall to reduce noise and were also high off the ground to keep the snow off them if used to pump heat on select winter days.

 

p1030579-small

The window supplied by Pinwheel Builds had a built in metal drain pan. Durable and robust detailing!

p1030583-small

The upper wall mounted, sleek looking electric resistance heating panel was a great way to direct the heat at the occupant when needed. These low load houses tend to have small radiating areas.

 

p1030569-small

This little guy was pretty aggressive around the compost bin and wouldn’t’ let me move till I took his picture.

For the record, the Zehnder HRV is an absolute pleasure to balance if installed right!